Wednesday 29 June 2011

A belated update

Pattern: Candy reconstructed


The problem with a craft blog is that there’s not much point updating it until you’ve got something to show off. And when you’re making a jumper without a pattern it takes a long time to finish. When I started this jumper, my first that I’ve designed myself, I had every intention of posting regular updates - a record of what I got right, what I got wrong, what I did to fix the mistakes, the changes I made to my original idea. In short, everything I learned about designing my own knits. But when it came to it, I was far too busy knitting to write.

Finished object
The important thing, though, is that my jumper is finally completed. And you know what? It looks pretty good! There was a lot of trial and error involved. Making sure the sleeves fit the armholes was particularly onerous, and I’m still not sure I quite understand how this works. I was going to do a ribbed collar, but once I’d done this and cast off, I couldn’t get my head through the resulting hole. So a simple double crochet finish has had to suffice. As it happens, I really quite like the new collar.

And all of this was part of the learning process. I now know to leave a bigger gap for my head, and to cast off very loosely! I’ve learnt how to make frills, and I love that effect around the cuffs. I’m also knitting a lot more quickly than I was at the beginning of this project.

Work in progress
The other thing with crafting is that, even before you’ve finished a current project, you’re thinking about the next. And true to form, I’m already on my next design. This time a cropped t-shirt with what I’m calling a ‘climbing vine’ lace pattern. I say I’m already on it, what I mean is that it’s nearly finished. Which will give me the topic of my next blog!